This leads me to think about a phenomenon that happens around this time of year: Keeping the harp humidified. Our house has both radiant floor and woodstove and you can imagine this is not a great thing. I keep the harp covered and since the floor is cement, there is also a wet sponge on the floor right underneath it. If I forget to keep the sponge good and soggy when I go to play I REALLY notice how dry the harp sounds.... not to mention that it goes way out of tune in about a minute and a half.
I have pans of water, water on the stove and I spray (and water) my plants frequently. We should get a gauge to see just how dry the house really is, also one to put in my harp. We should. Ahem.
I also feel, perhaps due to age?, that my fingers are more clumsy and that, because the skin is drier they don't feel quite as 'connected' to the strings. I usually wash them and then put on lotion sometime before I play, not right before, and then make sure I've rubbed the lotion of my finger tips and that seems to help.... but the net result is that I play less when the harp sounds a bit 'distant' (don't know how to describe it) and my fingers like slippery sausages. What a pain!
That said. I have been playing the same ten or twelve tunes the last few times at the hospital. I know I can do better, so this week my goal is to make a list of ten tunes I play perfectly well, practice them, and then play them. The only 'repeat' will be my three warm-up Carolan's (F. P./Kean O'H 3/ and Captain O'K). That is my pledge. Let's see how I do with it!
It's only February 3rd but I am reporting that I have done NOTHING about my promise to myself to play some new tunes. I keep thinking about my harp playing and what is happening with it. In a word: Plateau.
Am I bored? Maybe a little. Have I reached the limits of what I am capable of? No, probably not. But what do I want from the harp? I don't really want to teach unless I have the perfect students (harp mad, practice all the time, fun to teach), I don't really want to perform per se. Maybe I would like to do some weddings and things, but only if I had the perfect chum to do the gigs with. The hospital gig is about right since I am a volunteer and no once cares, really, whether I am there or not. So I can fink in the frequent bad weather we have up here in winter.
Do I want to play every Carolan tune there is like Catriona Rowsome did? Kind of. But, seriously, some aren't worth the bother.
Do I want to figure out how to play accompaniment the way Eileen McIntyre does? Who wouldn't!!!!
Do I want to learn more tunes? Yes, but I don't want to forget so many of the old ones!
I think this latter problem is one of my discouragements, in fact, from doing anything new. I hate working so hard on a tune to find if I don't play it for a few months I practically have to start over! To get a tune deeply embedded just takes so so so long! But the pleasure of a new tune is exciting and invigorating.
Music is important in my life, but it is not the central focus. As I get older, my writing, which has been my vocation, maddening and frustrating and sometimes rewarding, has taken on an urgency that I cannot ignore and I admit is making it hard to practice as much as I was able to ten years ago when I was not writing much (child, mother ill, etcetera) due to RL issues. So how to fit the music in?
Anyway these are some of the things on my mind. Back when I was a 'harp virgin' - just so wild to play morning noon and night, things were so much simpler. The learning curve was so steep and stimulating. Obviously you can't go back to that feeling, but I would love to find my way back to something steadier.
I'm not looking for any answers or advice really, just putting it out there.
And in the meantime too, here are some of the knitted harp wristlets, harp gauntlets, pulse warmers, or whatever you want to call them! The top piles are the small ones. I'm experimenting with different yarns and trying different types of knitting patterns. The lower group has the thumb hole. Most of the wools I've bought are not full wool, but partly silk or flax or cotton or acrylic because of the scratchy factor. I'm figuring that out too, what people can tolerate. If any of you are interested in being guinea pigs, lets me know! I want to make a 'lace' one too for summer, but I haven't gotten there yet. And, of course, shouldn't I be playing the harp? Well, yes, but I listen to books and music while knitting, and with the simpler stitches I can even read and knit, which I love to do in the depths of winter.
I used to keep a wet sponge in a plastic container *inside* the harp. Is that what you do?
ReplyDeleteI do that if the floor underneath is wooden!!! But with a cement floor, as we have here, I can put it right underneath. The harp is covered most of the time so I figure that most of the moisture travels up! I adopted the other from you and use that with my little harp which lives out in the studio.
ReplyDeleteDon't have to do that in Ireland, eh!!!!!
Be advised I've added to this month's blog about half way down.....
ReplyDeleteI have a humidifier in the 'music room' (haha just a spare bedroom) and even if I run it almost constantly with the door closed, I don't think the humidity has ever been above 45% all month. I'm getting the feeling that I'm moisturizing everything on our street!! And sometimes, when I tune, I hear these little tiny cracks and pops that tell me it's just a matter of time before I break a string. So boy, I feel your pain! And 'though I talked big about learning the jazz piece, once I posted I probably played it twice and then just stopped. Some days I have to force myself to practice...do you think it's the weather?? I'm going to do a search on Eileen McIntyre and maybe I'll be more inspired. Otherwise, it's same old, same old.
ReplyDeleteEileen is a friend Andee knows - she lives in New Jersey - and we all used to get together once in a while. I don't think you'll find her on line. She plays the best harp accompaniment of anyone I know, in a very traditional style. Her husband played the fiddle and was very encouraging and patient and would just play and give pointers about what sounded good but she's gone far beyond that, it's really special.
ReplyDeleteI bet it doesn't get above 40 here, not without effort.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it isn't the weather; truly the harp is not a happy camper at the moment. So maybe it is all right to let it hibernate. I know just what you mean about those little unhappy sounds!
Wow so many comments etc, I will read and respond when I have more time, probably tomorrow! And I do the same Lucy, I add to the main blog post all month long, so ladies just so you know!
ReplyDeleteI love those wrist warmers!!! Lucy, writing is most important for you, harping second most and that's OK. For me I'd say harping is most important. I like to write, too but it is not a calling...
ReplyDeleteFor a minute I thought you wrote "I'd like a wife, too" and I thought, gee, that would be great! :))
ReplyDeleteHaha Pamela! No, at this point a boyfriend, loyal and loving would do me just fine! But, hey, I'm working on that one! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI give up- somehow commented TWICE and each time I went to preview or publish, the comment box was empty. I cannot retype the same message again. Maybe it is the weather after all... love you- Sharon
ReplyDeleteI've done the same thing few times, Sharon. You probably just forgot to click on the blue 'Publish' box and instead clicked on the 'Sign out' box. That's what I have done more than a couple of times!
ReplyDelete